Abhimanyu Acharya – 2023 Majdi Bou-Matar Bursary Recipient.
Abhimanyu Acharya almost missed it. A friend sent him the link to the Majdi Bou-Matar Bursary application the day before it closed. He got it in on time. And then he became the bursary’s very first recipient.
When MT Space announced him at the IMPACT 23 festival, he took the honour seriously from the start. “Every accolade is but a responsibility in disguise. I understand it for what it is, and am committed to developing my piece in the spirit in which the bursary was offered.”
The project he brought with him had been on his mind for a while. Sharon Pollock’s The Komagata Maru Incident is considered a Canadian classic, a play about the 1914 ship of passengers from British India who were refused entry at Vancouver. Abhi had never been satisfied with how it portrayed the Brown characters at its centre. “I wanted to write about the Komagata Maru incident from their perspective,” he told MT Space.
That’s where it started, but the play kept changing as he wrote. Over time it “morphed into something more flexible, more ambitious.” Abhi tends to approach stories of colonial oppression through allegory in his English-language plays. The new script moved in that direction too, away from a straight retelling of history.
He could follow it there because he had the support to. In his application he had asked for time, resources, money and mentorship, the practical things he needed to get to the draft he wanted. MT Space provided all of it. “MT Space truly showed me what support looks like for playwrights.”
But getting to that draft meant writing a lot of other drafts first. “My creative process is very messy.” He writes as many versions as he can, testing ideas on the page to see what holds until he finds the spine of the play. He works the same way whether he’s writing fiction, screenplays or academic scholarship. What goes into those drafts is “a cocktail of observation, inspiration, and experience.” Sometimes it comes from real life. Sometimes he takes on a theme one of his favourite writers has tackled, “just to test myself and see if I could do it.”
All that testing lives right alongside a lot of self-doubt. Abhi was frank about it. When the conversation turned to how he’d overcome his doubts, he didn’t pretend to have an answer.
“I haven’t. I doubt myself all the time. I don’t think I will ever overcome setbacks or doubts about my art. But I think the trick is not to overcome them but to keep going despite them.”
What kept him going at MT Space, more than anything, was the people. “Projects will continue happening, but the sense of friendship, care, and community I experienced at MT Space is invaluable.” It took him just seven words to name the most rewarding part of the whole experience: “The friends I made at MT Space.” He also came away with a way of working that has stayed with him. “They showed me how to be thoroughly professional without being unkind.”
In January 2025, Abhi’s play found its first audience. Anchors was presented at MT Space’s Works-In-Progress Mini Festival, directed by Nicole Joy-Fraser. It follows a ship stranded in port for six weeks without food or supplies. On board, a captain facing mutiny is trying to mend things with his son. A mixed-race immigration officer has to prove his loyalty to the new country. A young couple who scammed their way onto the ship are starting to realize their dreams may not come true. The people whose perspective Abhi set out to write are now at the centre of the story.
Since then his work has kept reaching new readers. In 2024 he won the Eden Mills Writers’ Festival’s Read at the Fringe Literary Contest and was longlisted for the Austin Clarke Prize. This year his story “The Jump” was published in The Fiddlehead. He now teaches as an Assistant Professor at McMaster University.
And he is still going. Abhi is currently working on two manuscripts: a history of modern Gujarati theatre, under contract with Routledge, and a collection of his short fiction published in journals over the years. He is also revising Anchors, which he hopes to see on stage soon. On October 13, Iss Beech (In Between), a Hindi film he wrote, has its Canadian premiere at the International Film Festival of South Asia (IFFSA Toronto).
Majdi Bou-Matar started MT Space so that stories like this one could be told from the perspective of the people who lived them, bringing different communities together into what MT Space calls “a community of difference.” Abhi was the first artist to receive the bursary in Majdi’s name. The time, money and mentorship it gave him helped turn a draft into Anchors. The friendships he made along the way are still what he talks about first. A permanent endowment would mean every recipient after him gets that same start.
About Abhimanyu Acharya
Abhimanyu Acharya is an award-winning fiction writer, playwright, screenwriter and scholar who works as Assistant Professor in Global Peace and Social Justice at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario.
Find Abhi’s work: abhimanyuacharya.com | Anchors at MT Space | “The Jump” in The Fiddlehead |
Iss Beech (In Between) at IFFSA Toronto, Oct 13, 2026, 6:30 PM
Thank you MT Space supporter, friend, artist and writer Lily Gyamfi-Kumanani for contributing this post.
Consider donating to the Majdi Bou-Matar Bursary Fund today! Your support gives racialized artists the chance and guidance they need in the Canadian theatre scene. Donations can be made through CanadaHelps.
Join us for a special night of theatre, food, and community—and make a lasting impact. On Tuesday, December 1, 2026, we bring back a rare performance for one night only as we raise funds to establish an endowment for the Majdi Bou-Matar Bursary.
The Art of Getting Married
Performed by Pam Patel
In association with JMDrama / The Registry Theatre
Tuesday, December 1st – 7:00 PM
Doors 6:30 PM | Performance 7:00 PM | Buffet Dinner 8:00 PM
The Registry Theatre – 122 Frederick St, Kitchener
Buffet sponsored by Tamasha | Bar + Indian Kitchen.
Limited Seating. Reserve your tickets today!